


Hard Work and Easy Achievements

by BoPeepWithNoSheep



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine, Naruto
Genre: Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2020-02-28 21:21:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18764476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoPeepWithNoSheep/pseuds/BoPeepWithNoSheep
Summary: Ami has goals and ambitions, a five-year plan and some people just don't have any of those and succeed anyway.





	Hard Work and Easy Achievements

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Toyaja](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toyaja/gifts).



The thing about bullying someone, at least for the bully, is they don’t really see it that way. They don’t see a weak vulnerable victim, not exactly, at least. Oh, of course, they see an easy target and take a stab but there’s a motive. There’s a difference.

There are people who just _deserve_ to be teased, is all.

Little girls who are in over their giant foreheads, loud girls who practically flaunt their clan rights just to rub them in everyone’s faces, and then there are the quiet ones who are just so _perfect_. It always made Ami want to scream, to hit and punch and rail about the unfairness of everything. That a weakling like Sakura could think she would be an asset to the village, waste it’s resources to train her when it was clear she’d just end up flunking out later. Or the way that Ino, the utter bore and boar of a daddy’s girl living up to her namesake, would glide her way through shinobi life on nepotism alone.

But Shikako, perhaps, is a bit different. She doesn’t ever brag or waste teacher’s time, she’s mostly just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Got in with the wrong crowd, she’s annoying because she’s One-Hit Shikako but she doesn’t crow for the whole class to hear over every win. She’s clan born and privileged as they come but she’s tolerable.

Ami is diligent, works hard, and it pays off, mostly.

She’s not clan born, she doesn’t have a team just waiting for her to graduate and carry her to greater heights. She can’t pass on the merits of her ancestors or the political clout of her parents so it’s frustrating when she fails her genin test but it’s not a total loss. She works hard, works herself to the bone for four months and she’s actually recognized for it. Among the genin corps clan politics mean a little bit less, there’s still social climbers and hangers-on who rely on blood instead of merit but Ami can finally compete with them on a more even playing field.

She gets a good assignment, a trusted assignment and she’s proud.

It’s distant from the village, an outpost with a contingent of hawks and while most genin sent to this particular outpost are sent to work in the aviary specifically, Ami is a messenger. It’s a first step towards what might one day be a future in Intel and she’s working harder than she ever worked in the academy. She has a five-year plan, so she can work her way out of the corps and make chuunin. It won’t be easy but she knows in her bones that her will of fire is strong enough to achieve it.

It stings a little, to see her former classmates flying through the ranks thanks to nepotism and political sway but the _stories_ she hears--Well, maybe she’s a little frustrated to admit that not all of it is due to politics. Still, chuunin so fast is one thing, it’s not as common outside of wartime but there’s plenty of precedents. Jounin is, well, it’s baffling in a way. Shy and sheltered Shikako, the first jounin of their graduating class snatching the title at a breakneck pace.

Well, if anyone is going to make first jounin of their graduating class, Ami is mostly just glad it isn't Ino. 


End file.
